Humans Of IHS 

Day by day we walk down the same halls looking at the same faces. We think we know everyone and who they are, but everybody has a story and now it’s time to share them. Inspired by Humans of New York, Humans of Ipswich High School is here to spread some light on everything that you thought you knew about your classmates.

What has been your biggest challenge?: Mrs. Leo 

“The biggest challenge I had to overcome was finding a job. I felt as if I worked really hard to make my way through college, both for my bachelors and masters, and I worked really hard in my student teaching, and I was all ready to get out there and go get a job and I had great recommendations, but in upstate New York where I went to school and where I grew up, there were absolutely no teaching positions. There was almost negative positions because people were getting fired daily, because the school budgets were awful. Fortunately, my husband was also looking for a job. We both were adventurous, so were like ‘lets just apply to places in  Massachusetts’ because we liked it out here, so I applied to over 300 schools, and went on about 15 interviews. Fortunately I ended up at Ipswich which is a good thing. But with that being said I had to leave all my family, all my friends, and even though a three and a half hour drive isn’t that bad, it’s still hard being isolated from everybody that I know. It’s nice that this school has such a community feel: the teachers are super nice and the kids are super nice, but it was just so hard feeling so prepared to be able to do a good job as a teacher, but then having to leave everything that I know.”

Describe your feelings when you found out there were no jobs available:

“It was kind of an on going process because I started to realize that when I was doing my student teaching people were like, ‘…why would you do that; there are no jobs in teaching…’ but I had to focus on the fact that this is what I really want to do, and I’m going to move if I have to. I actually looked for jobs in Alaska and Virginia, and thankfully Massachusetts was a lot closer then them, but I just felt like I couldn’t… there was nothing else I wanted to do besides being a teacher and there was nothing else I could picture myself doing, so I was like I’m just going to have to reimagine other parts of my life, like where I’m going to live, if it is truly what I want to do.”

A trip like no other: Cam Waters

“I attended a Costa Rica community service trip held by National Geographic Student Expeditions the summer heading into my sophomore year of high school. I received a magazine advertising the two week long trip, and was encouraged by my mom to go. I’m really glad that I listened to her because I ended up having the trip of a lifetime. During the first week we got to know the island. We looked at souvenir shops, surfed, snorkeled and ate around at different local restaurants. One of my favorite memories is when we went to a religious festival and danced around with a bunch of drunk locals and then drove to a bridge with rope swings to jump off. It was an experience that I’ll never forget. The second week we went to a small village in the province of Guanacaste and helped out the local church by building a funeral home out of and cinderblocks and resurfacing stone tiles that surrounded the church. Costa Rica made me realize how privileged I am to not live in a third world country and really made me appreciate what I have at home”

Fun with the family: Abbey Sadoway

“Some of my fondest memories growing up in Ipswich were on the water with my family. My dad has a boat that we took out at Pavilion. Fishing was always interesting. We went a lot and I remember my mom was always afraid of the bait. Whenever my dad would catch a fish, she would scream at him to let it go. We would take the boat through the marshes and go clamming.  My siblings and I would always get stuck in the mud. One time, my sister’s shoe came off and she got swallowed by the marsh. We never found her shoe. After we finished at the marsh, we would head off to the beach where we would make sandcastles and my dad would proceed to step on them (She assures me it was a fun time). My mom hated when we dug holes because she always thought someone would end up falling in it. So naturally we dug a hole with a towel over it and then proceeded to put her chair on it so she fell into the hole. After a long day on the water, we would always end our day at White Farms. All of this made me realize how privileged I am to have grown up in a coastal town.”

Middle school trauma: Shanelle Taylor 

“I went through a traumatizing experience during middle school. When we were on the 7th  grade canoe trip, I went to get out of the canoe and walk to meet the rest of the group. As I was walking, my foot got stuck in the mud. The more I moved it, the more it sunk. As I was trying to pull out my foot, I pulled so hard that I fell forward onto my hands and knees, as my foot was still stuck. When I got up, I was covered in mud and decided that I hated canoeing. Since the incident, I’ve yet to step foot back on that sand bar on Plumb Island. After all of that, the trip wasn’t even good. I spent that whole time fighting with the two other girls in my group. Still wishing I went on those day trips.”

Planning for the future: Jenny Page 

“In the future, I’m not quite sure what type of career I want to pursue, but the one part I have figured out is where I’d like to to do it. Over the summer, I had the pleasure of traveling to the state of Alaska. I fell in love with the simple lifestyle and unique aspects that come with living in an area of land that is mostly undiscovered. Following my first trip to Alaska, I became very interested in the book Into the Wild. The book is the biography of Chris McCandless, a man who left everything from his life in North Carolina, donated all his money to charity, backpacked across the country, and lived in the Alaskan wilderness by himself. While I don’t want to live the extreme lifestyle that Chris did, I find beauty in “living fully” with nature rather than just living for material things. As I begin my journey of living on my own over the next year, I’m glad knowing the world is bigger than just Ipswich.”